Some time ago, I scrolled through my social media feed and stumbled upon a video of a woman in court accepting her fate as the judge read a list detailing her unpaid parking tickets. Tears streamed down the convicted woman’s face as the judge asked questions concerning her parking tickets. Between sobs she explained some unforeseen expenses and how she had recently lost her son. After collecting his thoughts, the judge offered his condolences to the dear woman and forgave her parking tickets. I teared up watching this woman receive grace from an official who had the power to shame and sentence her but instead chose the way of grace. The short video of the exchange between this convicted woman and the judge has been viewed over six million times! There’s something within us that longs to witness and celebrate grace—grace that hushes shame and offers second-chances.
We’ve seen that the woman accused of adultery in John 8 wasn’t shamed by Jesus but by the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day, who saw fit to shame a woman as part of their bombastic plan to trap Jesus. This public shaming only added to the shame she must have already carried as a woman sleeping with a man who wasn’t her husband. As her opposition demanded that Jesus take a stand on the issue of her adulterous affair, Jesus made it crystal clear that He didn’t condemn her and instructed her to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). He knew full well she couldn’t continue in her own strength, and so as we saw yesterday, He offered to this publicly disgraced woman freedom from condemnation—a gift only He could give. A gift that He still offers today. A gift that makes way for abundant life.
Adapted from the six-week Bible study Never Alone: 6 Encounters with Jesus to Heal Your Deepest Hurts, Tiffany Bluhm, Ó 2018 by Abingdon Press. All rights reserved.